Minnesota Twins: A 95th loss in another ugly season

Emotions were flowing in the home dugout on a rainy Saturday afternoon. It still wasn't enough to keep the Twins from falling 5-1 to the surging Cleveland Indians.

Right-hander Cole De Vries, pitching for the memory of his 90-year-old grandfather, retired the first 11 batters of the game. Seven of them came by strikeout, tying his career-high.

"I know he would have done everything in his power to watch me pitch one more time," the pitcher said of Lenard De Vries, who suffered a fatal stroke one week earlier and will be buried Monday in the Twin Cities.

The tribute faded after a single by Jason Kipnis, a two-run homer by Carlos Santana and three more runs in the Cleveland fifth, highlighted by a blown tag call at home plate.

De Vries was gone after five innings.

"I don't know if the air went out of his sails or what," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

That description fits a Twins team that has gone 5-19 since opening September with three straight wins. The Twins have reached 95 losses for the season with one game remaining, which means Gardenhire, with 998 career wins, will fall just short of a milestone that seemed virtually assured as recently as late August.

"It's pretty flustering," Gardenhire said. "Frustrating and flustering. We have not played good, and it's not been a lot of fun."

Having lost between 95 and 99 games the past three seasons, the Twins have now exceeded their total of 95-loss seasons in their first 50 seasons in the Twin Cities. They lost 97 games in 1999 under Tom Kelly and 102 in 1982 under Billy Gardner.

You have to go back to 1955-57, when they were the Washington Senators, to find three consecutive seasons of 95-plus losses for this franchise.

Outscored by a whopping 87 runs over these past 24 games, the Twins now face the prospect of watching a third team in as many series celebrate a postseason berth at their expense.

The fact that Gardenhire is without a contract beyond this year and could soon leave the only employer he's known since 1987 only makes this late-season collapse more shameful.

At least he knows his players are trying.

"They were pushing pretty hard to try to win a ballgame here," he said. "I had more than one of them come up and apologize to me. I don't need that. I know what they're giving me; they're giving me a lot. I appreciate the efforts."

He shook his head, something that has become a near-daily postgame occurrence as he waits to learn his managerial fate, likely on Monday.

With franchise catcher Joe Mauer sidelined by a concussion for the final 39 games and prospective free agent Justin Morneau shipped off to Pittsburgh at the close of August, the Twins are left with a paucity of weapons and experience.

"They don't have to apologize for anything," Gardenhire said of his collection of rookies and journeymen. "They come to play. We just weren't good enough this year."

All five runs against De Vries came with two outs, pushing the Twins' majors-leading total to 311 in that dubious category.

Catcher Eric Fryer, a September call-up whose fourth-inning RBI single kept the Twins from suffering their 16th shutout, didn't offer an apology to his manager but said it was "definitely disappointing" to fall short of the milestone.

"We definitely wanted to finish strong, wanted to get him to 1,000 this year," he said. "You never want to go into the offseason ... you never know. Anything could happen."

Sunday could mark the final time Gardenhire manages the Twins. At the very least, there could be a shakeup of his coaching staff for the second straight year.

"There's no doubleheader (Sunday), but hopefully we can get 999 for him," Fryer said. "It would be nice to avoid them celebrating."